Fifty years ago, Nancy Flegal arrived in Philomath from the Midwest and pedaled around town on a three-wheeled bicycle delivering food to folks in need.
Working out of a shed behind her home, Flegal’s efforts in those early years evolved into the Philomath Food Bank, an operation that continues on a much-larger scale today as part of Philomath Community Services.
“When she came here, she realized people were going hungry and she was going to do something about it,” Philomath Community Services Executive Director Sharon Thornberry said. “Of course at that time, we had two grocery stores and we had other food businesses here in town and she started gathering up food from churches and anybody else and delivering to people in need.”
Today, the operation is known as Nancy’s Food Bank. Philomath Community Services made the name change official earlier this year.
“The community support is what’s really driven all of this,” PCS board president David Low said. “It took one individual to start this but it just grew from there … the service clubs got involved and the city was helping with different things and of course you had the people that were helping the folks that needed food — it’s just really grown.”
Flegal’s early operation moved to locations on North 19th and then South 19th, Thornberry recalled, and eventually, Philomath Fire and Rescue stepped in to offer space on a lot behind its station at Main and North 10th.
The Philomath Rotary Club had stepped in a few years prior to sponsor the food bank operation. One of its members, Don Anderson, was a driving force in Rotary’s involvement and in 1987 helped Flegal get a mobile home set up near the fire station to serve as the food bank’s headquarters.
Said Anderson in a newspaper interview, “This is her bank. This is her heart and soul.”
In 1981, Flegal was honored as Senior First Citizen at the chamber of commerce’s annual banquet to recognize volunteers. Two years later, the Philomath Western Frolic asked her to be the honorary grand marshal of the annual parade.
Food insecurity was becoming more and more of an issue in Philomath during the early 1980s with families struggling in the aftermath of lumber mills shutting down. Food drives were organized and Flegal was at the center of coordinated efforts to deliver food boxes to those in need.
Born Nancy Jane Waple in 1901, she grew up in Clearfield, Pennsylvania and lived in that community until the late 1940s. She and her husband, Harold Flegal, moved to Crown Point, Indiana, and following his death in the 1970s, she relocated to Philomath where her son, Jack Flegal, lived.
Following her years helping folks through the establishment of the food bank and fighting for its survival, she resigned as its coordinator in 1990 and eventually moved to Oklahoma. She died in February 1993 in Pauls Valley, a small town south of Oklahoma City where one of her five children lived.
“I’m proud of the food bank and I’m proud of the people,” Flegal was quoted as saying in a 1983 Corvallis Gazette-Times article. “And when I go, they’re going to have to carry me out feet first.”
In 1991, Philomath Community Services was established as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization to operate the food bank and the baby bank, another volunteer effort that was started by June Anderson in the early 1980s and today is known as June’s Kids Kloset. Philomath Community Gleaners became a part of PCS in 1998.
Thornberry, who at the time worked for Linn-Benton Food Share, and Rotary’s Don Anderson sat down and put together the framework for establishing PCS as a nonprofit.
“It was a huge development getting that charitable designation the IRS allows … it really helps with fundraising,” Low said. “And with that, it also made sense that we could combine these programs.”
Thornberry eventually became the president of the new organization’s board and in the following years, efforts to find a new home started, especially since the fire station wanted to use the lot where the trailer was located for training purposes.
“Doyle and Harriet Hughes donated this land and we started a campaign to build the structure,” Thornberry said.
The new building at its current location on South Ninth Street opened in November 2001.
In the following years, the Holiday Cheer program and Lupe’s Community Garden joined the PCS lineup of services.
Thornberry reported that last year, 343 households made 1,151 visits to the food pantry. Those households together added up to 991 individuals — 344 of them under age 18 and 167 over age 50. The food pantry’s 111 volunteers worked 2,116 hours.
June’s Kids Kloset, Philomath Community Gleaners and Holiday Cheer also saw high numbers and Lupe’s Community Garden contributed 765 pounds of produce.
With food insecurity reaching new levels following the pandemic and rising costs, Thornberry said PCS earlier this year started inviting recipients to shop twice a month at the food pantry. The most recent numbers available from September show that the food pantry served 464 clients.
Thornberry recently marked her first year as executive director of PCS. She sees challenges ahead as the organization continues to provide for those in need.
“It’s a matter of getting a good picture of where we’re at, where we’re going and where we hope we can go,” Thornberry said. “And maintaining this building so that we can continue carrying on our mission every day.”
The Philomath Community Services board, which would like to grow with the addition of five or six new directors, has considered a further expansion of services, perhaps partnering with other organizations in areas that could range from helping seniors to child care to literacy classes. Low said it doesn’t hurt to dream big.
“We’re not there yet,” he said. “We need to take the steps that we’ve shown over time to get to where we want to go and we want to develop that vision better, which goes along with the expanded board.”
